Endoscopic surgical ("endosurgical") procedures are becoming widely accepted Within the medical community and by the patient population. Endosurgical procedures, which include arthroscopy, laparoscopy, thoracoscopy and endoscopy, have been shown to have many benefits. The benefits include reduced post-operative recovery time, reduced stay in the hospital, reduced pain and reduced scarring.
Numerous endosurgical instruments have been developed to assist the surgeon in performing endoscopic procedures. The instruments include trocars and trocar cannulas, ligating clip appliers, stapling devices, graspers, endoscopic pouches, and the like. In addition, endoscopic suturing devices have been developed which assist the surgeon in suturing within a body cavity.
In most endosurgical procedures, trocars are inserted into a body cavity in order to give the surgeon access to the body cavity. Conventional trocars typically consist of an elongated piercing obturator concentrically housed within a trocar cannula. Trocar cannulas typically consist of an elongated tube mounted in a hollow handle. After the trocar is inserted into the body cavity, and positioned properly, the surgeon removes the trocar obturator thereby leaving the trocar cannula as a passage to the body cavity. Several trocar cannulas are typically employed in an endoscopic procedure. An endoscope is inserted through one of the trocar cannulas so that the surgeon can observe the interior of the body cavity. The remaining trocar cannulas are used for inserting various endosurgical instruments.
It can be appreciated that suturing during an endoscopic procedure presents challenges to both the surgeon and the equipment manufacturer. Various endoscopic surgical devices have been developed which allow the surgeon to suture remotely in a patient's body cavity. For example, endoscopic loop suturing devices have been developed. The loop suture devices consist of a pretied loop mounted to a cannula. Other endoscopic suturing devices have been developed such as pre-tied knots mounted to cannulas,
Although the endosurgical suturing devices which have been developed are suitable for their intended purposes, there is a continuing need in the rapidly progressing endoscopic surgical arts for new instruments useful in endoscopic suturing.